The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 40

Late night window to THE GUIDE Laurie Oakes TCEL's $2m video runaway the US 5tye jimey 'JHbming 5eralb MARCH 18-MARCH 24 AUDIO VIDEO TELEVISION RECORDS MECOHIBQUIRa II I IT Channel 7 has a new weapon with which to draw CRIBB reports on a soapie without melodrama viewers to its news. TIM Dale), his mother-in-law, Helen Daniels (Ann Haddy), and the siblings Paul (Stefan Dennis), Julie (Vikki Blanche), Scott (Darius Perkins) and Lucy (Kylie Flinker). At the Ramsay's are Max (Francis Bell), his wife Maria (Dasha Bla-hova), and their children Shane (Peter O'Brien) and Danny (David Clencie). In the third house are the main subjects of tonight's episode: Des Clarke (Paul Keane), whose fiancee dumps him on the eve of the wedding, and flatmate Daphne Lawrence (Elaine Smith), the stripper at his buck's night. should be noted that Neighbours is not an original concept.

There is a soap called Brookside screening on British commercial television. It centres on the lives of a group of families in a comfortable Liverpudlian housing estate. Brook-side is as successful as its precursor, Coronation Street. According to Ray Watson of Grundys, who is responsible for the first 10 episodes of Neighbours, the series has been in the pipeline for over 12 months. "There is nothing new in the world Anne Haddy, Francis Bell and, to a lesser extent, Stefan Dennis, combined with the fresh faces of Vikki Blanche, Darius Perkins, David Clencie and Elaine Smith, that gives Neighbours its vitality.

The scripts are free of the normal Australian predeliction for melodrama. Francis Bell, a veteran actor who plays Max Ramsay, says that Australian drama has tended to be written in two ways. "Either it is sub-realism, that is not as large as our life really is, or it is deliberately melodramatic," says Mr Bell. "One of the nice things about Neighbours is that it is about ordinary folk and the comedy drama of everyday life without the melodrama. "The range between the comedy and drama is enormous." The drama in Neighbours noticeably lacks the contrived nature of most soap operas.

It has tapped into ordinary life and plays on normal family tensions. "Soap operas work on the idea that life is boring and so we need melodrama on our television screens for fulfilment," says Mr Bell. Neighbours will centre on three households. There is Jim Robinson (Alan OCCASIONALLY there comes to television a soapie so charming in its simplicity that to pronounce it a winner seems inadequate. Neighbours, which premieres tonight on Channel 7 at 5.30, is such a series.

By all indications, it is destined for a long and popular life and will steal much of the thunder of its 5.30pm rival throughout the week. Perfect Match. If it fulfils the network's hopes, it will also lift Seven National News into a commanding position in the commercial battle for the evening ratings. Neighbours, from the Grundy production house, is being recorded at the HSV 7 studios in Melbourne. It is about three families living at the end of Ramsay Street.

With a core cast of 12 actors, the incidents of everyday life are milked for their humour and drama. Its starting premise is that everyday life is not about murders, rapes and bombings. Neighbours is a good commercial product, maintaining a facet of Hghtheartedness without trying for comedy. There is a high energy level among the predominantly young actors in the series. It is the experience of Alan Dale, DffTOSQfl EARLY evening television changed quite dramatically with the arrival of Perfect Match on Ten.

It is, incidentally, another Grundy production. Perfect Match found an audience the networks hadn't attracted before. Surveys found that at least 350,000 more people were turning on their sets at 5.30pm. The bulk of that audience were women in the over-40 age group, as well as a sizable and more passive young audience who can be counted on to boost a channel's news rating by at least three points. But by the end of last year.

Perfect Match had lost its novelty and much of the original concept had been exhausted. It still outrates anything else at 5.30pm, providing an enviable platform for Eyewitness News, although its ratings are up to 10 points lower than its peak. Curiously, the audience didn't go to another channel. They simply didn't turn on the set. The considered aim of the Seven Network is to entice those viewers back to the screen.

ATN in Sydney hopes to have Neighbours rating at least 15. Continued Page 4 name and details of a child in need. 3 months. year. Gifts oft? and mar avian deductible of he concedes.

It is the approach to Neighbours that is different. "We haven't got these extreme characters that I and others are guilty of using," he says. The series deals with simple ideas like toothaches and barking dogs, and lively confrontations with neighbours. Some of the story-lines last one episode. Others run from five up to 26 weeks, and not all of them have happy endings, says Watson, "because life isn't like "The characters will make mistakes.

Quite often people do silly things and make stupid mistakes in their lives." The key to Neighbours' immediate and future success will lie in the series staying within the bounds of suburban credibility. "There is a point beyond which you don't go," says Watson, "and that is where you get into the sensational aspects that really don't apply to the majority of people. "So you pull it back and keep it real and entertaining. Neighbours' versatility is that "Ramsay Street is a very big street: beyond Ramsay Street is the rest of the community, the city and the I Yes. I'll sponsor a child.

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